N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:32 pm
Associates of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was sentenced today to nine years' imprisonment, present what they claim is evidence that the world's largest yacht, the Scheherazade, which is currently docked in Italy and whose owner is unidentified (officially), is crewed entirely by employees of the Russian secret service. Navalny's people say they contacted one of those crew members, who told them the yacht is Vladimir Putin's.
Seized.
And it didn't take two years and nine months to do it.
You heard that at least 10 Russian Generals have been killed in Ukraine. Due the same time period, at least 7 top russian managers died of mysterious causes. Including murder/suicide of Gazprom's manager's family. One of his colleagues reportedly escaped to Ukraine where he joined a territorial defense unit.
Yesterday, via @MarketRebels (bolding mine)
Billionaire Russian oligarch Alexander Subbotin has reportedly died after an anti-hangover treatment that involved toad poison
Alexander Subbotin was the former top manager of Russian oil company Lukoil
Lukoil, Russia's second largest oil company, called for an end to the war in Ukraine in March
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
My first reaction to this was it was propaganda, in spite of Zelensky saying the Russians were treating their troops like wood to be thrown on the fire, and not even burying their dead. Then, I saw Al Jazeera, which is definitely one of the more reliable news sources had reported boxcars full of bodies. And it's known Russia also made an effort to hide the number of their dead in previous conflicts.
Horrible, horrible, even if there's some propaganda spin on the story...
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
Sunny, sadly there have been too many reports from multiple sources to doubt the truth. And I think it's this complete indifference to the loss of life, even of their own, that is hardest to comprehend about this war. We did not expect this, in 2022.
After liberating Bucha, in addition to atrocities committed against locals, Ukrainian army found bodies of Russian soldiers strewn in the woods, left behind even though Russian forces occupied the area for weeks. Other places, residents ended up burying enemy soldiers in a mass grave. One of those burials was later "sorted out" by the advancing Ukrainian army, who traded some of the bodies for the return of their POWs. Another story shared recordings of Ukrainians identifying dead Russians through their documents and social media and informing their families.
I don't think the story of the mobile crematoriums, meant to hide Russian war crimes and the scope or their losses, has been definitively confirmed, but that, too, is becoming increasingly likely.
And if there isn't a body, Russia doesn't have to pay the families for the loss of their soldiers. They did the same after WWII - one of my great uncles was MIA early in the war, and his widow got nothing, because what if he surrendered. He was Jewish, surrender was not an option.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
To show there are good people in the war, saw this story on FB:
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
I've read that Finland's president and Putin have had a decent working relationship over the years, sharing a long border as they do, but it seems push has come to shove and Finland's president, Sauli Niinisto, had a straight-forward and honest response to Putin's demands. ‘You Caused This’: Finnish President Blames Putin for NATO Application
Finland's president placed responsibility for his country's decision to pursue NATO membership squarely at Putin's feet.
Article in part:
Speaking in Helsinki during a visit from British prime minister Boris Johnson, Niinisto argued that Finland’s decision to enter into security arrangements had been brought about by Russia’s actions. He underlined that Finland’s neutrality during the Cold War, during which both Finland and neighboring Sweden refused to align with either NATO or the Soviet Union, had been a matter of their sovereign choices, and they alone could control their foreign policy.
By demanding that Sweden and Finland remain outside NATO, as the Kremlin did in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Niinisto argued that Russia had forced the two countries to abandon their neutrality in order to prove that they still had their “own will.” He also cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which nearly all Swedes and Finns oppose, as a motivating factor.
“They [Russia] are ready to attack their neighboring country,” Niinisto said. “So … my response would be that you caused this. Look at the mirror.”[/url]
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
Sunsilver wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 8:31 pm
Horrible, Frelga, so horrible!
To show there are good people in the war, saw this story on FB:
okay I cried.
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
Inanna, I can never see FB stuff on here from my desktop but I can see it on my phone.
It says:
The following was told to a reporter by a man who escaped Mariupol:
"I left the bomb shelter and saw a car with keys in the ignition near the store. I watched it for two hours, waited for the owner - I didn't wait. I took my family, got in the car and drove to Vinnitsa to visit relatives. I found a phone number in the glove compartment and called the owner:
'Sorry I stole your car. Saved my family'
(reply from car owner) 'Thank God, don't worry, I have 4 cars. I took my family out in my jeep. The rest of the cars I filled with fuel and left in different places with the keys in the ignition and the number in the glove compartment.
I received calls back from all cars. There will be peace - see you. Take care of yourself.'
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
Re: the report above from the doctor and her family, the Russians are going after doctors and medics who are trying to help the injured. Many have treated injured Russian troops as well as Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. The Russians don't care. They still look at them as enemies. And of course, hospitals and first aid posts have been bombed. This is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate finally passed the bill approved by the U.S. House more than a week earlier (but previously blocked by Sen. Rand Paul) authorizing $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, more than twice what had previously been provided by the U.S.
The bill was flown to South Korea, where U.S. President Biden is visiting, and Biden signed it into law there today.
(He also signed a bill to ease access to baby formula, which is in short supply in the U.S. at this time.)
Oh. Sorry.